Rival hospitals make top grades on safety

While hospital rivals in Savannah and Hilton Head race to expand their facilities, the two are tied when it comes to patient safety.

The health systems both earned A’s from the Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Score. The Leapfrog Group, a Washington-based nonprofit, relied on data from the hospitals and from Medicare in its 26-point analysis, which yielded the scores for St. Joseph’s/Candler and Hilton Head Hospital groups, among more than 2,000 other hospitals nationwide.

The findings also factor in secondary data from the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey “to give hospitals as much credit as possible toward their safety score.” Leapfrog’s score includes 26 measures, which are used by national measurement and reporting programs, according to the scoring methodology on Leapfrog’s website.

More than 400 people die every day in the U.S. because of a preventable hospital error, according to Leapfrog. That’s due, in part, to medication mix-ups and patient infections and injuries, such as bedsores.

St. Joseph’s/Candler and Hilton Head Hospital systems welcomed the grades Thursday.

“Providing safe, high-quality care to our patients is the primary focus of everything we do, and we are committed to using evidence-based guidelines to provide the best possible care to our patients,” said Kelly Presnell, spokeswoman for Hilton Head Hospital.

“We support the public reporting of clinical quality measures because we believe that it can enhance the quality of care delivered by health care providers across the nation.”

Area hospitals were among 729 nationwide that earned an “A” out of the 2,652 general hospitals that were graded. Letter grades of “B” were assigned to 679 hospitals, while 1,243 earned a “C” or below. On average, Massachusetts hospitals had the highest scores, while District of Columbia received the lowest average scores, according to the group’s findings.

Scott Larson, spokesman for St. Joseph’s/Candler, said the Savannah health system was pleased to receive an “A” grade, which was for both St. Joseph’s Hospital on Mercy Boulevard and for Candler Hospital on Reynolds Street.

“Leapfrog is a reputable group and we’ve been participating in their surveys for a few years,” he said, adding that despite the overall high grade, the hospitals will keep working to improve their safety.

Not everyone stands with the Leapfrog findings.

For hospitals in the lowest-scoring group, skepticism from the American Hospital Association may provide some solace.

“The American Hospital Association has supported several good quality measures, but many of the measures Leapfrog uses to grade hospitals are flawed, and they do not accurately portray a picture of the safety efforts made by hospitals,” said Nancy Foster, vice president of Quality and Patient Safety Policy for AHA.

“Hospitals were the first to provide quality data to the public and have been doing so for more than a decade,” she said. “We believe that hospitals should be transparent with their quality and safety information so that communities know the efforts hospitals are making to improve care.”

Leapfrog describes itself as “an independent national nonprofit run by employers and other large purchasers of health benefits.”